The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy

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Read, reviewed, and released in May, 2011

This book has some very unexpected plot twists that hold the interest. It begins with a man selling his wife and infant daughter at a fair. She finds him years later, and he remarries her, although there are other complications in his life. She, too, is keeping a significant secret from him. It is a morality tale, describing the rise and fall of a man who cannot escape his inherent character.